Exploring Our Children’s Potentials

Anya’s been refusing to take a nap after school. And that means she has about one to two hours ‘alone’ with me, ie. before Vai wakes up from his nap.

She told me the other day that she wanted to make a little bowl or something so that she can put her knick-knacks in it.

And THAT was what we made together the other day, while Vai was fast asleep.

A fancy little plastic bowl, made by her and just for her!

Relatively simple to create, but needs a bit more time when placing the matchsticks together.

Definitely an excellent way to exercise a preschooler’s hand-eye coordination and fine motor skills!

What we used :

– Plastic bottle (Used an empty ‘Ribena’ bottle)

– Coloured matchsticks

– Coloured paper

– Scissors and glue (I used a common liquid glue)

What we did:

– Cut out the bottom part of the plastic bottle (this will be the ‘bowl’ part)

– Cut out the coloured paper, approx. 5cm wide, lengthwise

– Stick the strip of coloured paper all around the top of the ‘bowl’ (see image above)

– Smear liquid glue on the coloured paper and stick the coloured matchsticks one by one, until they cover all of the coloured paper’s surface.

And that’s it! You then leave it to dry!

Note:

– Smear a generous amount of liquid glue so that the matchsticks stick real well

– Parents may need to help and keep the matchsticks straight as the kid sticks more and more matchsticks around the container

– I purposely placed the matchsticks a little ‘over’ the plastic bottle’s edge, by about 3mm. This way, our kids’ little hands won’t touch the actual plastic bottle’s edges (preventing possible ‘cuts’ from uneven cutting)

– I smeared extra liquid glue all over the matchsticks surface when they’re all laid out (and even it out with my index finger). Just to be sure they really do stick together well!

…

Anya managed to cover 70% of the surface with matchsticks. Not too bad at all. And I continued her work from then on.

And hey, it turned out well. We love it!